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***The FEBRUARY 2018 VUD is now available.***

A Facebook page has turned up for XHPTCS-FM 95.5 Tapachula (Grupo Radio Digital dba Sofía Valanci Penagos). This is the first commercial station to be operated by GRD in this market and joins social wolf XHTPC-FM 106.7. It was the only new station won by the Valanci family in this auction.

XHPTCS, a Class B1 station, will begin programming on Tuesday, November 21. What exactly will be on air is a bit of a mystery. One forum poster says to expect La Mejor, but that would create a very unusual situation as the two MVS franchises would be operated by separate parties. However, this is exactly the case in Villahermosa, where the Exa FM affiliate (XHKV) is owned by OEM and GRD operates the La Mejor station (XHLI/Tab.).

First on the Mexico Beat: The First Move Out of the Article 90 Reserved Band

A less earth-shattering set of news, but it's the first of its kind.

As part of the renewal of its concession, XHACA-FM 106.3 Acapulco will leave its high perch for 96.1 MHz. This dial position was not awarded in IFT-4 (though the winner of both Acapulco stations, GRC, bowed out in that market). XHACA was awarded 106.3 in November 2010, just six and a half years prior to being told to move, but as a B1 allotment was available there, it could move.

It might feel like we just got through with this, but another opening will appear on the IFT Pleno in four months' time. The Evaluation Committee has proposed five names for the IFT and seven people in total to fill the commissioner vacancies at IFT and Cofece (these agencies' vacancies are filled at the same time in the same way) after 26 aspirants took the necessary exam.

Ramiro Camacho Castillo, Fernando Butler Silva and Georgina Kary Santiago are in the running for both the IFT and Cofece. Sóstenes Díaz González and Luis Raúl Rey Jiménez only qualified for the IFT. Kary Santiago heads the Economic Competition Unit of the IFT, so she'd fit in either agency.

The list goes to President Peña Nieto for selection and then to the Senate for confirmation.

———

Yarrrrrrrr!

A new pirate is sailing the radio airwaves in the Tuxtepec area. Radio Papaloapan 87.9 FM signed on Monday. It is being run by Technical Secondary School 236 and is spearheaded by Roberto Álvarez López with support from Section 22 teachers and municipal authorities. Programming will include cultural, educational, and news elements, as well as a children's show made by teachers and students at two elementary schools.

They are apparently in the process of filing for a concession (the article incorrectly states they're looking for a permit before the SCT — this is not 2005).

There is a social station in Tuxtepec on 89.9 that has not yet been built (XHTXP-FM).

More obscure IFT filings reveal more frequency changes on the horizon. I have found 11 more of these. All clear the Article 90 reserved band as much as possible. Asterisks denote 400 kHz spacing. For completeness, the previously discovered XHACA move is also added.

Úrsulo Galván is on the coast halfway between Xalapa and Veracruz Puerto. No doubt that it will be a DX target next year. Alto Lucero is northeast of Xalapa. Both towns are getting their first stations, though in the case of Alto Lucero it looks like MM is aiming for the state capital.

Accounts for LaCaliente963 and LaCaliente1009 were created in September on Twitter with no profile images, or indeed, no followers at the present time. LaCaliente921 already exists for the Ensenada station, so LaCalienteMzt was created - this one does have an image ready. All three have Facebook pages, with 43, 13, and 2 likes, respectively.

MM stripped GRD, its affiliate, of the Hits FM brand recently, prompting XHDT to become "Like 98.3 FM". You had to know this was coming — I did as early as July. (XHPCCC also has its social accounts up and running.) As for Compostela-Tepic, given the fact that MM is aiming for Tepic, this makes sense because of XHXT airing La Caliente.

However, today's revelations leave listeners in Ensenada still in the dark. Hits FM is still the most likely format for 94.7 XHPENS-FM, given that XHHC is already airing La Caliente.

Another radio controversy has emerged in Mexican public radio. This time, it's XHUPC-FM that's the focus of the spotlight.

@RadioIPN on Twitter released a blistering statement today in which it is stated that El Politécnico en Radio was "handed over" to Radio UNAM and UAM Radio management, with not a single politécnico running the IPN's station and the culture of the 80-year-old polytechnic institute being "kidnapped" as a result.

Apparently, Jesús Ramos Subirachs, who had run the station for 20 years, was totally boxed out of the naming of the station's new administration, including Georgina Tapia Mejía, former Head of Planning at Radio UNAM, Arfaxad Ortíz (also of Radio UNAM), and UAM Radio's Magdalena Mares.

On October 6, all the locks were changed at the station, and the personnel on duty were treated "as if they were criminals", according to this statement, which demands that the president and Secretary of Public Education Aurelio Nuño do something to return the station to the IPN community.

This is the first tweet from the @RadioIPN account, which had been the station's official Twitter account, in nearly a month. The station's website is little more than a placeholder at the present time. The Facebook has similarly been inactive.